Science Soil Report- Hui Qi's Group

Soil Experiment

Difference in the types of soil

·         Sand

·         Has the biggest air spaces in it

·         It allows the most water to pass through

 

·         Top Soil

·         Has medium size air spaces

·         It allows more water to pass through

 

·         Clay

·         Has the least air spaces in it

·         It allows the least water to pass through

 

Aim of the project

Task 1- To find out which is the best type of soil to be used in the sand bags to build the levee.

Task 2- To find out the best section along the river where the levee should be built first, given the limitation of time.

 

Plan of Experimental Design

Task 1

Factors that affect the amount of water a soil can hold

·         Amount of soil

·         Amount of water

·         Depth of soil

·         Type of soil

Hypothesis

Task 1- Clay is the best soil to be used in the sand bags to build the levee.

Questions we are investigating

Task 1- To find out the best soil that can be used to reduce the volume of flooding.

Independent Variable

·         Type of soil

Dependent variable

·         The amount of water that pass through the soil in the same amount of time.

Constant Variable

·         Amount of water

·         Duration of the experiment

·         Amount of soil

Task 2

 Factors that affect the amount of water a soil can hold

·         Amount of soil

·         Amount of water

·         Depth of soil

·         Type of soil

Hypothesis

Task 2- To find out the best soil that can be used to slow down the flooding.

Questions we are investigating

Task 2- The levee should be built at Section A first.

Independent Variable

·         Type of soil

Dependent Variable

·         Amount of time it takes for the water to drip finish

Constant Variable

·         Amount of water

·         Amount of soil

Procedure

Steps of the experiment

Task 1

       1)Measure 200g of top soil.

2) Place the wire gauze into the top half of the bottle and cap the bottle.

3) Place the 200g of soil into the top half of the bottle.

4) Measure 150ml of water.

5) Uncap the bottle and put the top half of the bottle into the beaker.

6) Pour the 150ml of water into the bottle with the soil and start the stopwatch at the same time.

7) Stop the collection of water after 3 minutes.

8) Pour the water collected in the beaker into the measuring cylinder.

9) Record the amount of water in the measuring cylinder.

10) Repeat steps 1-9 for the sand and clay soil.

11) Repeat the whole experiment twice

Task 2

1)      Measure 200g of top soil.

2)      Place the wire gauze into the top half of the bottle and cap the bottle.

3)      Place the 200g of soil into the top half of the bottle.

4)      Measure 150ml of water.

5)      Uncap the bottle and place the top half of the bottle into the beaker.

6)      Pour the 150ml of water into the bottle with the soil and start the stopwatch at the same time.

7)      Leave the water there and wait for it to drip finish.

8)      Record the time taken for the water in the top soil to drip finish.

9)      Repeat steps 1-7 for the sand and clay soil.

10)  Repeat the whole experiment twice.

Measuring instruments used for Task 1 and Task 2

·         Stopwatch

·         Measuring cylinder

·         Electronic balance

Changing the independent variable and dependent variable but making the other factors constant

Task 1
Different type of soils are used in the experiment, clay, top soil and sand. We measured the amount of water after the experiment(3min) and our constants are duration(3min), amount of water(150ml) and amount of soil(200g)

 

Task 2

Different types of soils are used for the experiment, clay, top soil and sand. We measured the amount of water after the it finished dripping and our constants are duration(3min), amount of water(150ml) and amount of soil(200g).

 

              

Results of experiment

1^st Experiment

Type of soil	Amount of water after 3 minutes/ml	Amount of water used/ml	Amount of soil/g
Sand(1st Experiment)	90	150	200
Top soil(1st Experiment)	89	150	200
Clay(1st Experiment)	97	150	200
Sand(2nd Experiment)	126	150	200
Top soil(2nd Experiment)	82	150	200
Clay(2nd Experiment)	124	150	200

 

2^nd Experiment

Type of soil	Amount of time taken for the water to drip finish/seconds	Amount of water used/ml	Amount of soil/g
Sand(1st Experiment)	67	150	200
Top soil(1st Experiment)	220	150	200
Clay(1st Experiment)	154	150	200
Sand(2nd Experiment)	65	150	200
Top soil(2nd Experiment)	128	150	200
Clay(2nd Experiment)	99	150	200

 

     

 

Scientific Explanation of findings

Task 1

The more the air spaces the soil has, the more water collected after 3 minutes.

Task 2

The more the air spaces the soil has, the faster it takes for the water to drip finish.

Conclusion

Task 1

Top soil is the best soil to be put into the sand bags to build the levee to reduce the flooding because the least amount of water passes through it/it absorbs the most amount of water.

Task 2

Section A is the best section for the levee to be built first, given the limitation of time because top soil takes the longest time to finish dripping.

Suggestions for making improvements to the investigation

   · Reduce human error

   · Parallax error

   · Use a drier soil for the second try of each experiment

   · Repeat the experiment at least three times

New questions about how water is stored in soil

How is the soil able to store water?

References

         · Google

Duty list and acknowledgement

Experiment done by: whole group

Clean up: whole group

Photos taken by: Si Ting

Results collected by: Jia Ling

Report and results consolidated by: Hui Qi and Jia Ling

Report typed by: Hui Qi

Group members: Hui Qi(15), Jia Ling(6), Si Ting(11), Xiao Qing(4), Mmin Le(5)

Class: 1K